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Description/Abstract

We study the dynamics of a nematic liquid crystal in a shear flow by employing the gradient of the Landau-de Gennes free-energy function on second-rank tensors, modified by constant and rotational terms. We predict configurations of equilibria and periodic solutions found in numerical simulations and explain certain anomalous nongeneric continua of equilibria. The existence of these continua shows that the model is structurally unstable.